Sheesh. 50. We’re going to all need pocket thesaurus to keep track of all these variable. “Pangender” “Androgyne.”

Good heavens, homosexuality is a tiny minority. It’s not more than 1-2% of the population. Trans-whateverism is a tiny subset of that. How many trans-pan-andro- types can there be? Do we really need to cater to every single possible freak and kink out there with their own special subclass? Of course we do, and they all have to be labeled victim classes and given special government protections and benefits! That’s the American leftist way!

Facebook has 1.2 billion users – and now it has nearly as many gender categories to match. The social media website unveiled a new feature today that allows users to jettison male or female and describe themselves by dozens of “gender” labels.

Under the “gender” section of their profile, users may click on “custom” and type in dozens of options, including “pangender,” “genderqueer,” “bigender,” “agender,” “gender questioning,” “androgynous,” “cisgender,” and “neutrois.”

He told LifeSiteNews he was thankful they had not included the term “genderf—k,” a growing self-identity among those who embrace a fluid view of sexual identity. Still, Facebook’s list of potential “gender” terms is large and growing.

“Way to go, Facebook – smash that gender binary!” wrote John Becker of The Bilerico Project, congratulating the social media giant for its decision.

You know there are now fools running around – mostly college kids and recent graduates – using the term “cis-” gender to separate themselves from trans type people? So, girls call themselves “cisfemale” to distinguish themselves from the billions and billions (not) of “transsexual” men pretending to be women, or women pretending to be men, or whatever.

This only normalizes and gives societal approval to an incredibly destructive perversion. “Transgenderism” is accompanied by some of the worst rates of negative life outcomes of any subset of individuals. Drug addiction, self-mutilation, suicide – you name it, the rates for transgendered types are off the charts, as in orders of magnitudes higher, than the normal population. This has little to do with “bullying” or societal rejection, and almost everything to do with the fact that these people are profoundly screwed up and desperately need help developing normal, healthy views of themselves. This action by Facebook – just plain, cowardly pandering to a loud if tiny minority – will only help confirm those lost in extremely destructive (not to mention sinful) lifestyles.

This is one nightmarish culture. It almost makes me want to stop getting on the internet, it just gets worse and worse and worse.

When others are suffering, especially other Christians, it is a great spiritual work of mercy to pray for their aid, their strength in faith, and the end to their oppression.

The last 100 years have seen more violence and oppression against Christians than the previous 1900 years combined. By actual count, far more Christians have perished in persecution in the past century than they did in the previous 19.

Persecutions continue to heat up around the world, especially wherever Christianity comes into contact with islam. From the Philippines to Indonesia to the entire Mideast – the ancient home of Christianity, far, far older than islam – muslims are persecuting Christians in massive numbers.

Of course, some of the worst persecution continues in Iraq and Syria, where radical muslim (but I repeat myself) Al Qaeda type insurgents continue to slaughter Christians in scores and hundreds, while hundreds of thousands have fled one of Christianity’s most ancient homes. Christianity used to be prevalent across the North African littoral, but now, outside Egypt (where the pressure had been growing to great heights, until the last few months), very few communities remain. Even in Egypt, Christianity’s second oldest home, there are still frequent attacks on ancient desert monasteries, churches, and individual souls.

Here I am going to depart from our Holy Father a bit, whose exceedingly (some might say excessively) generous “ecumenism” towards muslims has repeatedly stressed that they need not convert, that they are fine where they are at and have their own path to salvation.

Balderdash. Leaving aside the constantly defined Dogma of Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus, muslims are descendants of a wicked melange of heretical Arian Christianity and some of the more bizarre Jewish sects that existed after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 (including the sodomite infested “zealots”). Mohammad was an itinerant desert trader who initially tried to be Christian, then was convinced by a sister (or wife, she may have been both) that starting a new religion would be much more profitable. There is not a single miracle in the history of Mohammad to testify to any special commission from God. There are no miracles in the history of islam, unless you consider its initial wave of conquest miraculous. I consider it diabolical.

Islam is the only world religion that has only ever been spread solely by the sword. Aside from rare individual exceptions, mostly among deeply troubled individuals (such as incarcerated populations), islam only makes “converts” due to horrific persecution of other religions and constant threats of violence, enforced poverty, secondary status, etc. Those attuned to spiritual warfare might surmise that many characteristics of islam – its backwardness, its rejection of the God-given faculty of reason, its inherent violence, its constant repression of women and minorities – would imply a far darker origin for this religion than some revelation from the Lord.

Below is a video of the depredations of muslim fanatics against Christians – many Catholic – in Syria. This is just a very mild example there has been far worse destruction and murder reported:

Of course, Christians are not only persecuted by muslims. In India, hindus persecute Christians with grim abandon. There are regular tales from there of raping of nuns, destruction of churches, waves of murder, and even worse.

But in the post-Christian West, the gravest threat to Christianity comes not from factional religious violence, but from the growing hatred for the Faith and all it represents in the minds of millions of sexular paganists. Many of those pagans are former, at least nominal, Christians themselves. They are thus almost impossible to convert, absent a miracle of Grace, as they feel they already “know” Christianity and have consciously rejected it.

The steadily increasing secularization of our governments, the growth in leftist ideologies carefully indoctrinated into public school children, and the increasing collaboration between the government and those who seek to advance a wickedly sexularist agenda all point towards an increasing likelihood of not only white persecution, but even red. I am increasingly convinced I will see blood martyrdoms of Christians in this country in my lifetime.

So we have much to pray for. We must pray for those suffering now, pray for the conversion of our culture, and pray that we may remain steadfast in the Faith should the persecution – already extant in many low-key ways – should get really amped up in this country.

If we don’t pray for the mercy of God and the amelioration of the suffering of those Christians persecuted now, who will pray for us when our turn comes?

I posted on this last week. Make sure to go visit the miraculous Our Lady of Fatima statue that is presently touring the Diocese. Dates and locations at the link. Someone sent me this great photo from last night in Rowlett:

Novena for two young recipients of the enormous Grace of Fatima, Blessed Francisco and Jacinta Marto:

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly with all the powers of my soul, and I thank You for the apparitions of the most Holy Virgin in Fatima which have made manifest to the world the treasures of the her Immaculate Heart. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary I implore You, if it should be for Your greater glory and the good of our souls to glorify in the sight of Your Holy Church Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta attaining for us, through their intercession, the grace we now implore…(mention your intentions)Amen. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be…

Lord, have mercy on us
Christ, have mercy on us
Lord, have mercy on us

God the Father, Creator of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of mankind, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, Perfection of those who are chosen, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.
Immaculate heart of Mary, pray for us.

Francisco and Jacinta, children blessed by God, pray for us.
Children so dear to the Heart of Our Lady, pray for us.
Children so loved by all of us, pray for us.

Hearts enchanted by beauty, pray for us.
Hearts yearning for truth…
Hearts overflowing with love…
Amazing wonders of prayer…
Wells brimming over with sacrifices…
Children totally committed and ready for martyrdom…

Francisco, seeker of peace and contemplation, pray for us.
You who would console God…
You who died smiling…

Jacinta, faithful helpmate of the Holy Father, pray for us.
You, the apostle of the Immaculate Heart of Mary…
You, the friend of sinners…

You two, who enjoyed the company of angels, pray for us.
Confidantes of our Lady…
Living witnesses of her Message…
You who loved God so deeply…
Watchers beside the Hidden Jesus…
Adorers of the Most Blessed Trinity…
Stars of light for all human beings…
Burning Bushes of the Most High…
Flames of love for all eternity…

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, forgive us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Let us pray: O God who granted to our two little Shepherds the grace to become little burning bushes on fire with love for the Holy Father and for sinners, and burning with love for Our Lady and the “hidden” Jesus, grant that we, too, may be other Franciscos and other Jacintas, so that we, too, may burn with the same love and, with them, all meet together again in Heaven around Our Lady in adoration of the Blessed Trinity. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.